Australian man, dog visit B.C. cities in final leg of North American tour

Australian owner and dog duo Mark and Mya have spent the last 18 months travelling around North America, blogging, sharing photos and videos, and raising awareness by showing people that it is possible to travel with a dog.

The pair has visited all the ski communities in the southern interior as well as Alberta and the United States. Last week, they made their way to SilverStar Mountain Resort in Vernon and stayed at the pet-friendly Vance Creek Hotel in the ski village.

Mark said that he decided to make the trip from Australia to Vancouver after his father died suddenly of a heart attack while celebrating Mark’s 30th birthday.

“My father had been planning on doing a trip around Australia and he had been planning it for about 15 years. He planned to do it when he was 65 and he was 63 so he never got to do it,” he said. “For me, prior to that, I had been all about building my career, saving, investing for the future and I had all these other excuses as to why I wasn’t going to travel and figured that I’d do it down the track. But, I’d always wanted to go to Canada and what happened with him was a real eye-opener for me, and I realized that I can’t just continually plan for the future and that really changed my outlook.”

His dog, Mya was about two-years-old at the time and he decided that, if he was to make the trip, he would have to take her with him. After some research, he realized it was possible.

“We were kind of really amazed at the start because there wasn’t a lot of information out there about travelling with a dog, and a lot of the information was quite old. So we started off posting some cute photos of what we were up to and then it kind of progressed and became a little bit more informative as we went on. And now everywhere we go, we try to share pet-friendly travel tips and show people that you can do this,” he said. “She adapts really well because she’s been to so many different environments and been exposed to various environments that nothing is overstimulating for her. I just wanted to show people that having a pet isn’t a barrier to going off and living life.”

“Vernon was really our first destination that we really ticked off when we first got here from Australia, so it’s really nice to be able to come back now and do some more around the resort.”

He said that the first time he had been to SilverStar was in December 2017. He biked, snowshoed, and did some Alpine skiing. After travelling around the U.S. and Canada, Mark and Mya returned in the summer for a second time — though, Mark said that they didn’t spend much time at SilverStar because they had missed biking season by about a week. So, instead, they spent time biking the trails by Predator Ridge Resort.

This time, they returned to SilverStar to snowshoe, do some trail walks, alpine skiing and do a horse and carriage ride. They finished the trip with a meet-and-greet Friday night at the Vance Creek Hotel before moving on Saturday afternoon.

Mark said that initially, they were supposed to head back to Australia in August 2016, but with the help of some sponsors, were able to stay a bit longer and visit a few more locations — Vernon being one.

“We’ve been fortunate enough to have a few sponsors that said they love what we’re doing and they like that we’re able to inspire people and have a pet while you travel and they’ve helped support us and allowed up to keep travelling so that we can continue with sharing the information and getting the word out there for people as well.”

Mark said that he is hoping to spend more time in British Columbia and Alberta before hopefully making their way up to Alaska.

“That will take us until the end of May and then we’ll be heading back to Australia and maybe seeing some of our own country.”

Since beginning travels in November 2017, they’ve gained a large following on Facebook and Instagram. Between the two social media platforms, Mark has over 35,000 followers. To follow their trip and to read more, people can visit http://markandmyasadventures.com.au or follow the duo on Instagram or Facebook at @mark_and_myas_adventures.